Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/220

 186 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. are also minor differences in the proportions of the pillars and the execution of the figure sculptures, that may be indications of some difference of age. On the other hand, no vihara on this side of India has a facade more richly ornamented than this. Those at Bhaja and Bedsa are quite plain, and those around Karle, though richer, are inferior to this, so that on the whole the architectural evidence tends to confirm the date as sub- sequent to the Christian Era ; and if so, then Karle may be of somewhat later date than had been previously ascribed to it. The pillars of the Gautamiputra cave No. 3, as will be seen from the last woodcut (No. 104), have lost much of the elegance of those last described. How far this difference is to be ascribed to the first cave having been constructed under a Malwa architect, whilst the latter was probably executed by a Telugu or Dakhani, it is hard to say. Instead of the graceful bell-shaped Persian capitals, we have the pudding forms that afterwards became so prevalent. The shafts are straight posts, and have no bases, and the whole shows an inferiority not to be mistaken. The carved and sculptured doorway also belongs to a much less elegant style. Besides this, there are three things here which prove almost incontestably that it belongs to the same age as the Amaravati tope erected in the 2nd century the rail in front, already given (Woodcut No. 37, p. 1 1 3), the pilaster at the end of the verandah, and the bas-relief of a dagaba, which occupies the same position on the back wall in this cave that the Bhairava with the club now occupies in No. 8. 1 It has the same attendants, and the same superfluity of umbrellas, as are found there, so that altogether the age of the excavation can hardly be considered doubtful. Cave No. 12 is a small vihara, the central hall being 32 ft. by 23 ft, and with only four cells on one side. It had never been finished, and considerable alterations have been attempted in its interior at some date long subsequent to its first excavation, apparently to adapt it to Hindu worship. Its verandah, however, consisting of two attached and two free-standing columns, is apparently of the same age as the Nahapana cave No. 8. An inscription upon it states that it was excavated by " tndragnidatta, the Yavana, a northerner from Dattamitri." 2 None of these names can be recognised, but they point to an age when foreigners, possibly of the Panjab or Arakhosia, visited the Dekhan. The great vihara (No. 15) beyond the chaitya cave, and 12 ft. above its level, is one of the most important of the series, not 1 This is not original, but is a in cave 3. ' Cave Temples,' p. 270, and figure of Bhairava formed out of what plates 19-23. was originally a dagaba similar to that 2 ' Epigraphia Indica,' vol. viii. p. 91.